Gwinnett County Nightmare

Gwinnett County is going through a financial meltdown. The county decided against raising taxes 25%, and is now actively looking for ways to cut expenditures/services by $20 million dollars.

Police and fire departments will be cut. A newly constructed library will sit idle. Park services will be reduced. But with the alarmist headline Empty Fire Stations But Plenty of Illegal Aliens, it’s clear that Gwinnett Buzz is more concerned with those dirty foreigners that are invading the Gwinnett Utopia.

Oh, and they’re pissed about the new baseball stadium too.

It’s the nightmare scenario where the Gwinnett pundit(s) demands more and more services from their local government, but isn’t willing to pay for them. They’re thrilled that the Commission nixed a 25% tax increase, but pissed that their services are withering away. We want more! We want more! But we’re not gonna pay for it!!!

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8 Responses to “Gwinnett County Nightmare”

First, thanks for reading and linking to the Gwinnett Buzz. However, perhaps you should try dealing with facts rather than inserting words in my mouth as to what I am concerned about.

First, I do NOT demand more services from the government. I only want the bare minimum of services from all level of government. So you contention “that the Gwinnett pundit(s) demands more and more services from their local government, but isn’t willing to pay for them” is, quite simply, false. If the government would stick to it’s core responsibilities – which does not include developing professional baseball stadiums – there would be enough money to undertake its core responsibilities. And, if sticking to those core responsibilities, there is not enough money, then a tax increase would not be nearly as distasteful. However, when you see a failure of stewardship of taxpayer dollars, supporting the government taking even more money out of pockets is a non-starter.

As for being more concerned about “dirty foreigners” those are your words, not mine. I am concerned about ILLEGAL ALIENS which I made clear. These are defined as people who are here ILLEGALLY. U.S. citizens can do ILLEGAL things as well and I opposed those actions as well. Nice attempt to hint a racial angle, though there is not one.

You claim that you don’t want more services from the government, just a bare minimum. Yet your bare minimum includes a massive increase in federal enforcement of the program that deports illegal aliens.

So your “bare minimum” includes a massive increase of government services that arrests, detains, and deports brown people.

I’ll concede that illegal immigration is a problem that should be addressed, but singling that out (and the baseball stadium) while Gwinnett spirals down the crapper is wrong-headed, in my opinion.

I am brown and support the removal of all people, regardless of skin color, who are here illegally. My wife is German and we went INS hell but made it through.

Those disrespect our laws by coming here illegally need deportation. I for one don’t see anything racial about that. It is just common sense that if they broke the law coming here, they are breaking some laws still.

Law enforcement is one of those limited roles of government for which tax dollars SHOULD be spend unlike building baseball stadiums for private organizations or, at the federal level, building tunnels for turtles. I don’t want MORE services, I want the federal government to fulfill their role rather than waste time and money building up a socialistic nanny state. If they would stop the latter, there would be plenty of funds to bolster immigration enforcement. However, there is a reality on illegal immigration – it is a political issue more than law enforcement. Democrats – and some Republicans to generally a lesser degree – are more interested in achieving votes from Hispanic voters who more likely than not would be cool to strict immigration enforcement, than they are in enforcing the law.

Getting pulled over by a cop and for speeding and tacking on a $300 fine is not the best way to get me to spend money in your county. I have no problem paying a fine if I am speeding. Full disclosure, I was. But to charge me $300 for speeding.

Then again, do you think I am going to spend money in a county that charges a ridiculous amount for speeding? $100 I understand. Now, I will do everything in my power ***not*** to spend money in Gwinnett county. And no. I do not live in this county.

The county approved spending $1M on the 287(g) program on 7/30/09, but they estimate that they will save $7M a year. Of 2,600 prisoners at the jail, about 800 are “foreign nationals.”

By my way of reckoning, this means the program will restore $6M a year from the Jail’s operating budget. And even if it saved only $2M a year, it will have done exactly what I wish it to – increase efficiency and effectiveness with the taxpayer dollar.

I don’t know that I would call this a “massive increase” if it is net positive…